Today my buddy Steve from More Kids Than Suitcases has taken a time-out from shoveling snow in Canada to join The World of Deej for a guest post. Take it away Steve!

When you go to Disneyland, there's really no mistaking who's in charge. You're in the House of Mouse, and Mickey is the man calling the shots (Well, most likely it's Minnie, but that's a discussion for another day.). Of course like all great leaders, Mickey has an entourage to help him out with everything that needs to get done. It's a solid group of characters, but like most close knit groups, there's always one who needs to be kept in line a little more than the others.

You think I'm talking about Donald don't you? He's the one with the reputation for hot-headedness, the real loose cannon who could go off at any second. He'd have been the one I suspected too, but in the Wonderful World of Disney, Donald isn't allowed to run unchecked. Mickey, in his infinite wisdom, knows exactly how to handle Donald...he keeps Daisy nearby. We've had numerous encounters with Donald, and although you'll often see him nervously checking over his shoulder, Donald has been a perfect example of a well behaved duck.

You know I'm not talking about Pluto. Pluto is the only one who can match Mickey in the friendliness category, and he just might be the most adored character who doesn't wear a dress. My kids love it when they get a chance to see Pluto, and although I suspect that part of the fascination has to do with the fact that they really want a dog, I know that any encounter with Mickey's best friend is going to be a happy one.

No, the member of the Fab Five that we seem to have ended up on the wrong side of is Goofy. To be honest I'm not sure what we did. Maybe Clarabelle ratted out Lori's parents for running a dairy farm many years ago, but we've had an up and down relationship with Goofy since our first trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Lori's parents with Goofy, explaining their dairy farming past.

We've tried to make it work though. On our first visit as a family to Anaheim, we made sure to book a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. After great visits with Donald, Pluto, and Alice, Goofy came over and delighted my children by performing some of his traditional silly antics, but then, just as it was time to go, he grabbed my son's Gameboy and put it in his shirt pocket. His sisters thought this was hilarious, but my son was not thrilled with this at all. He's a little bit possessive when it comes to his electronics (Too much sometimes. I'd pay good money for Goofy to come over now and take his Xbox out of his room.) and he stopped eating his breakfast so he could keep track of Goofy as he made his way around the room. In the end Goofy brought the Gameboy back and all was forgiven, but since then my son has always kept a little better track of his stuff whenever Goofy was around.

The next year we returned to Goofy's Kitchen (making it justifiable for you to question our intelligence) but as soon as my son saw Goofy coming, he closed his Gameboy up and put it away. He needn't have bothered though, as this time Goofy had his eyes on the girl's autograph books. The boy got to laugh while Goofy made the girls jump to get their books back, and for the second year in a row, I left with kids who had a growing suspicion that maybe Goofy wasn't as likeable as the cartoons made him out to be.

Proving that we do actually possess a small amount of common sense, we decided to try other breakfast buffets on our trips from then on. Time went by, and our kids eventually began to laugh about their misadventures with Goofy. We went to visit him at his house in Toontown, and this year we even included him in our family Christmas picture. It seemed that all was forgiven, and although he posed no threat to Pluto as our children's favorite character (which is kind of weird because, he's a dog too), Goofy was returned to his status as one of the names given when people asked who the Fab Five of Disneyland were (Before the reconciliation, my kids would answer Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Stitch. People looked at us weird.). Everything was going fine, and we had visit after visit to Disneyland with no character problems at all.

Then came the cruise. This March we took a Disney cruise on the Mexican Riviera. The cruise itself was fantastic, and I highly recommend taking one if you get the chance. My kids loved the Kids Clubs on board, and one of their favorite times was when their group would get taken up on deck for some time on the sports court. It was always something fun when they were up there - basketball, dodgeball, relay races, or soccer - and it quickly became one of the most anticipated times of the day.

Until Wednesday. On the fourth day of the cruise, the kids found out that there was going to be a special, substitute teacher for the class that day. Once assembled on the sport court, the counsellors brought out the day's guest teacher - Goofy! Long past their grudges from the buffets of years ago, my kids were excited to see Goofy, and thoughts of throwing dodgeballs at an almost impossible to miss eight foot tall dog started running through their heads. Goofy had other plans however. Apparently Goofy has been on a fitness kick, and so fun games of basketball were replaced with other things. Things like:

Jumping Jacks

Pushups

Situps

and Cycling

Needless to say, you're in the bad books again Goofy. Welcome back to the Fab Five Stitch!

Thanks again to Steve for stopping by today. You can follow all of his family's travel adventures at More Kids Than Suitcases, or you can also tag along with him on Facebook.